The End – Ch 164
The image of me cradling Aims on her bed fades away as I voice out my selfish wish. Just like last time, all of these memories are somewhere in the uncanny valley for me. New yet ever present. Forgotten but permeant. To say nothing of experiencing all of those darker thoughts and emotions again...
Well, I'm not too surprised. I always knew that there was something... off about how devoted I was to Amelia in respect to Earth's moralities and such. But now? With the love returned in full and our bond tighter than ever, I don't feel anything wrong with just letting that possessiveness shine through. If the little blips of pink at some of those more... controlling thoughts during the memory were any indication, it seems Aims likes that side of me too~.
Another huge relief, if I'm being honest with myself. We may about to be sharing some words over what we both saw soon, but knowing my precious baby girl loves me back in spite of my flaws is just... ambrosia doesn't even come close.
"Y-you..." Aims stutters with a hand over her mouth and a complicated look on her face that she points in my direction. Eyebrows slightly knit together as the bond and space around us tingle in varying colors. "You killed Mary and Jennean?"
Her voice is quiet, but not accusing. Worried, more than anything. I face her fully and simply nod my head. "I did. They purposely hurt the most precious thing in existence to me. They used and abused you when you were weak and vulnerable, and I don't regret it for a single second."
A dark atmosphere surrounds me for a second as I do my best to restrain myself and tack on, "Honestly, I would have liked to make it more... personal for both of them, but I'm not dumb enough to think that wouldn't have caught up to me eventually. Not with how interconnected Earth was given phones and stuff."
Aims stands there for a few moments, making me begin to sweat a little bit. I know she hated those two, eventually, but now I'm afraid that maybe... that was too much. All that previous confidence suddenly standing on shaky ground.
Her eyes never leave mine even as I begin to slightly tremble under that scrutinizing gaze. Piercing looks flitting up and down my body as the silence lingers before she drops the hand from her mouth and reaches out for mine. Folding both sets together, she leans forward and plants a small, loving kiss on my lips making the world erupt into prismatic rays.
I can't help but to breathe out a little moan, both from the pleasure and the relief, before she breaks it off and fixes my face in her vision. "Good. Thank you for getting rid of them. At least now I know they aren't going to hurt anyone else like they did me."
"Well, I guess that's true too... but I just did it because they hurt you. I don't really care about anything further than that." I offhandedly reply back, rubbing my forehead against hers as our hands slip to each other's waists.
A beautiful, soft giggle spills from her lips while she squints her eyes. Her hands gripping my hips and pulling me into her in the most amazing way~. "Well, I appreciate it all the same~. And this might be kind of fucked up..." She says before trailing off and biting her lip. A smoldering desire rising to the forefront of her azure windows to the soul.
"But I can't get over how hotyou are when you're like that~... I wouldn't want you to think of Akiko and the others with that level of hostility, but that controlling, dominant aspect is really hitting a lot of buttons for me~."
The now cherry pink space matches the blooming blush on her cheeks as she stares at me with obvious want and desire wrapped up in a sheepish smile. Something that tickles my mind and soul in ways words can't describe~.
"Oh yeah~?" I manage to breathily reply back, shifting my leg between hers which forces an adorable little gasp of air out of her. A hand slinking up to cup her burning hot cheek while the other pulls us even tighter together. "I'm glad to hear that, my baby girl~. And don't worry, like I said before I actually do like the girls. The only... issues I have are with Ios and Akiko, but it's nowhere near the level of absolute hatred that I had for those whores back on Earth."
Aims thinks about it for a second and then nods, her cute little brain so obviously struggling between keeping the conversation going and ignoring the way her hips are unconsciously rocking into my thigh~. "D-do you ever *mmh* think you'll come to like Akiko and Ios too? When we talked about it last time, I know you said you'd t-try *ahn* but now that I see how... intense your emotions are, I just want to be sure. I love you, more than the universe Sandra, but I love them too."
Well, its good to know she was being completely honest when she said my darker side turns her on~. But, in the effort of fairness, I decide to pull back a little and respond to her properly. And not just because the resulting pout is impossibly adorable~. "I... think I will. At the least, I won't do anything to come between anyone. They all love you just as much as you love them, and I would never get in the way of that healthy dynamic. I know they won't betray you, or manipulate you, or break your heart."
I plant a kiss to her velvety lips, her shudders of pleasure brief yet noticeable before I chuckle and lean back. "In case this was eating at you as well, I don't have any issues being in a group as you saw. The only thing that has ever been important to me is your love and that everyone treats you right. So long as I have that, there won't be any problems from my side~."
That does seem to both ease some tension from her shoulders and cause the roaring blush to spring back to life~. Cute~. I debate teasing her a little before the next and final memory before she looks down at the ground with a bit of a sad expression. "Those things you said to yourself when you thought you made a mistake or were angry. Do you still think and talk to yourself like that?"
For the first time since we've been reunited... I'm actually lost for words.
I stammer a few times before mimicking her posture and softly answering, "S-sometimes... It's not as bad anymore since I'm not stringing myself out on weed and booze, but yeah... That's partially why I was so outraged at Akiko when we met. I watched all of your memories and just sat there so upset with her. With myself. Feeling useless and hopeless since I was essentially powerless to help or speak out against her. At least, until she came to the memory vault with you."
Warm fingers splay across my cheeks and lift my head back up, eyes meeting a mix of worry and indignation that makes my heart skip a beat. "I do not like it when you talk to yourself so harshly. Or when you think you're some... some fuck up. You are not any of those awful things you thought into the mirror, or when trying to track me down at the party. You are my most treasured person, and I will not have anyone - including yourself - speaking of you like that. Got it?"
A few quick nods are all I can muster, the sudden overbearing attitude shift ironically now making me tremble and squirm with a certain... pink overtone. "I..." I begin to say back before swallowing a lump in my throat, "I don't know if I can promise to stop cold turkey right off the bat, but I will promise to try and do better about not putting myself down anymore. Fair?"
A growl that would be adorable if it didn't make my knees knock together rumbles out of Aims' chest as she cuts back, "I guess that will have to work for now. As much as you are wholly devoted to me, Sandra, know that I am to you now. How would you like it if I was still broken and hurting, thinking so little of myself? I know that it won't be easy, but any time you start thinking like that again I want you to tell me as soon as you can. That way I can kiss and cuddle and fuck that silliness out of you. You're everything to me Sandy, and I can't stand to see you suffering. Same as you can't stand it when I am."
Like a raging beast, her arms latch up around my neck and pull me into a ferocious make out session. My surprise quickly fading into sapphic bliss as our tongues wrestle for dominance and control in each other's mouths. And, riding off the feeling from before... I let her win~. And it feels amazing~.
After we break off, silvery strands hung between us until they snap, I give her a knowing wink and smirk. "With such an enticing punishment, I'm confused on what I should do~."
"Sandra..." Amelia threateningly growls back.
My laugh echoes around the void as I just rub my cheek against hers, much to her grumbling chagrin. "I'm kidding baby girl~. Don't get your fur up~." We lean back as I give her a genuine smile that calms her down somewhat. "I promise I'll do my best. If I'm struggling, you'll be the first person to know. I love you~."
A sinfully cute harumph follows up after she crosses her arms and looks off into the distance. "Fine. I love you too. Just don't try and hide it or I will actually be upset with you."
"Perish the thought~." I say back with a mix of genuine truth and cheeky smarm. A perfect combo as Aims continues playing hard to get~.
We lean forward and embrace each other for a few minutes, just floating in the emptiness with contentment and another step along our relationship~. But, like all good things...
"*Sigh* We should probably wrap things up in here. I want to hold you in my actual arms so fucking bad, Aims."
A nod against the crook of my neck where her head is resting. "Me too, Sandy. What's this last one going to be like? Any idea?" Despite my best efforts, a choked sob betrays my now beginning to fray emotions. Amelia notices as she pulls back with concern on her face and cups my cheek in her hand, "Sandy?"
"I-its..." I manage to stumble out between racks of breath. Terror, fear, loss, heartache. All those and more bubbling to the surface even as I struggle against them to give her an answer. "It's the last memory from Earth. The one where we d-died." My voice somehow manages to articulate the thought even as the now heavily worried love of my life wipes away the falling tears.
In yet another reversal of roles, Amelia gently tugs my face down to her neck and begins to cradle me softly. My hands wrapping around her torso to claw ineffectually against her soul avatar's back as the thing I've feared the most finally is about to come to pass. To have to relive something so tragic that even though I don't know its contents, my subconscious screams at me not to look. The real reason I haven't been truly reborn into Mara and been standing at her side.
A useless cowa- "Ow!" I yelp between sobs as my waist begins to get pinched, tears now not only from emotion but from the surely growing red mark beginning to brighten.
"What did we just promise, Sandra? No more negative self-talk." Amelia replies to the outburst with a knowing yet disappointed tone.
"H-how did you even..."
"I may not have spent as much time going through your memories as you did to mine, but just seeing what you've showed me so far is enough to guess when you're about to spiral. That, and the bond between us just kept getting more and more depressingly colder so it wasn't too hard of a leap to make~." Cheeky girl. At this rate I'm going to lose all my big sister credibility! Though I do admit it's gotten my mind off what's about to come next...
"Sandra," Aims continues with that previous soft and loving tone, "I know this is going to be horrible to watch and experience again. I have no doubts that we are going to be weeping messes by the end of it. But just remember, I'm right here now. We're together like we're meant to be. This is the last hurdle to make that fact even truer, and I'll be with you every step of the way. I'll always be here for you, sunshine~."
A hiccupped sob still escapes me as I lean back and give her a questioning look and tilt of the head, "Sunshine?"
Her radiant smile perks upwards as she replies, "Yup~. I'm your baby girl, and you're my sunshine~. That's the law now~."
We stare at each other for a couple heartbeats before both of us throw our heads back in laughter. Sunshine, huh~? Warmth fills my chest as we both regain composure at about the same time, our bright smiles meeting the other's. Yeah, I think I like that~.
With my confidence so masterfully returned under the combination of her silliness and sternness, I take a deep breath and prepare to take that final step towards reunion. "Okay then, baby girl~. Let's do this."
"You got it sunshine~. I love you~." She giggles back after using the new pet name before resting her forehead to mine like we've been doing so far.
"I love you too~." Is the only answer needed as we close our eyes and become enveloped in darkness one last time.
A watercolor sky of oranges, purples, and blues paints the horizon as the lagging summer sun begins to set. The rumble and bump of wheels on a poorly maintained road jostling the arm that is propped up to the window every minute or so. Classic Rock music softly humming below the surface of conversation between the two people in the front seats, only interjected by myself or Amelia every once in awhile.
For her part, she is still sorely lacking on social skills after everything she's been through. Something that always hurts to be reminded of, but at least I got rid of those ugly parasites that were leeching off her. Who knows if they'd try and show their faces again, try to worm their way back into her heart. Now they're just worm food~. Or shark food in Taylor's case, I guess.
The reason I'm only doing the bare minimum of interacting with the two people sitting in front of us - our parents - is a different matter entirely. While the glacial atmosphere around us has begun to thaw somewhat in the past year or so, they still look at me like some kind of mistake. A regret. With apprehension and fear.
So to not expose Aims to any of that shit, I do my best to play along and keep the conversation moving. God knows they love hearing their own voices enough to mostly carry it on themselves, but at least maintaining the air of a happy family won't be my baby girl's burden.
We're all piled into our father's extended cab truck, heading into town to celebrate Amelia and I's graduation from college with Aims taking the seat behind the driver and me behind mom. It was close, but I managed to squeak by and have enough credits for a boring business degree. Just something that will pay the bills and keep a roof over my head. Aims, on the other hand, is nearly the recipient of a full on degree in architecture with a minor in history~. My smart, amazing, precious sister~!
All either of us are missing are the little pieces of paper to be put into a frame~. Proud doesn't even begin to describe how I feel towards Amelia. Instead of being broken and shutting down, she picked herself back up and just kept moving forward time and time again~. Sure, she stumbled some here and there, but nothing like when she was in those awful and abusive 'relationships'.
And those times were nothing that I couldn't swing in with a hug, kind and truthful words, and a promise of free food to rectify~.
I look over in-between a lull in the mundane conversation from the front row and take the sight of my lovely sister in. The amber rays of the fading sun framing her chestnut hair in a radiant halo as her yellow sundress silks around her. A gentle, placid set to her honeyed eyes and lightly smiling lips as she rests her head against the window with her legs tucked underneath her. Arms folded at her waist as my heart throbs in that all too familiar and desperate ache of want.
She must feel my eyes on her because she turns to me and gives me a much more genuine and affectionate smile~. The framing of her hair making her resemble an angel too pure and beautiful for this world~. It does, however, also make that clawing and hungry need stir to life anew. Something that is only getting harder and harder to reign in as time goes by...
I return the smile and give her a playful wink devoid of any sensual undertones. Much as I want that to be the opposite. She gives a little laugh and then turns to rest her head against the window once more, closing her eyes as she looks to begin drifting off to sleep. Well, we have another twenty minutes of driving, so I guess a little cat nap isn't the worst idea.
Turning to begin preparing to do the same, our truck that had been stopped at a red light begins moving forward as the crimson turns clover. Dad looking left to turn onto the highway. My eyes continue to shift out towards the window before going wide. Blinding white light bathing my side of the vehicle, a blaring foghorn that ruptures my ears. I can't even scream in horror before the grill of the semi barrels into the truck.
The screech of tires. The shattering of glass. The rending and bending of metal and plastic.
My awareness shifting from upside down back to right. Again. And a final time. The protesting and fractured frame of the crumbled truck coming to rest at last. Warm, wet liquid dripping down my face, clouding my eyes. A cold numbness pooling in my stomach and on my right leg. Breaths uneven, difficult, and stuttering.
Thoughts hazy and wispy. Like trying to hold sand between your fingers. Confusion mixing with shock mixing with terror as at last, a call-to-action surfaces in my mind: Amelia.
With muscles that fail to respond, the coldness now giving way to a burning, piercing pain, I fight as hard as I can to bring my vision back across the cab to where she was sitting. Every shifting inch sending agonizing pain lancing through my spine, through my bones. With everything I can muster, I fight against the encroaching blackness to my vision, colors beginning to fade and become muted around the edges, until I finally succeed.
And I wish to everything that I hadn't.
Blood. So much blood. An arm twisted in the wrong direction, white bone poking out of the skin at the elbow. A yellow sundress tattered and stained, smeared in crimson. Legs buckled and bent in ways that aren't natural. A mop of once chestnut hair now scarlet as it rests amidst the broken glass of the window frame, a singular large piece of crystal just barely edging out of her temple. The frame itself bent from where her head must have impacted it.
No. No. No. NO. NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
Everything else around me fades away. My mind becomes crystal clear. Body protests as I begin desperately reaching for the sundered form of my Amelia. Hoping and praying and denying what my eyes see before them as real. My nails rake against the fabric as I pull with everything I have towards the still not moving object of my entire world. A fleshy wet ripping sound coinciding with another gout of warm dampness on my stomach ignored as I scream and crawl and wordlessly beg.
Finally, after something that was both seconds and eons, I manage to get close enough to stretch out and take her wrist between my own crimson fingers. Tears mixing and clouding my vision more than the trailing liquid from my head. My heartbeat and shuddering breath the only noise in this chaotic, wrong scene.
Desperately I cling to consciousness, fighting against the ever-expanding darkness and muting of color. Forcing myself to the brink as my mind unravels before I feel it. A weak thump against my fingers.
Relief nearly dragging me to slumber before I shake it off, my voice coming out scratchy and gurgling. Like my lungs are filled with water instead of air. "A-Aims, baby girl, s-stay with me. Please, p-please don't leave me. Not l-like this."
Outside voices begin to funnel in through the fog, two familiar, the others not. The sound of some kind of hydraulic equipment whirring to life as the frame of the ruined truck shakes. But I pay no mind to them, my slippery fingers holding firm around her wrist even as my strength begins to falter.
Another thump and another round of pleading. A third that takes longer as my breath begins to fail. "N-no..." I brokenly whisper at a fourth that never comes, my world shattering apart as a single, last breath exits her chest.
I don't even realize the door behind me has been ripped off by the jaws of life. Fading mind too focused on my final thought. That how even in death... She's still beautiful.
"Tragic, huh? Really wish mortals would come up with better ways to get around. Death like this is so... meaningless." A high-pitched voice tingles into my brain after who knows how long of just... nothingness. Confused and weary, all I can do is simply... exist.
A haughtier, more mature voice replies to whoever spoke, their words similar yet echoey and somehow powerful. "Perhaps. But it is what they need to do in order to continue advancing. A series of steps taken in a certain order to evolve and thrive. Or, to burn themselves to ashes. Regardless, now that the sister is here, we can begin."
"Okay~. I'll start rebooting Amelia after I get rid of all the... problematic stuff. Poor girl suffered so much in this life..." The younger sounding one says again, my mind stirring at the mention of my baby girl's name.
"*Sigh* Very well. It will take longer than simply erasing all of her previous memories even if her personality may become damaged due to it. No sense in repeating her trauma a second time, I suppose."
The older one's words finally snap me awake, my vision expanding out in a bubble around me. Like I can see in 360 degrees. Anger and rage at whoever these people are messing with my sister roaring to life inside of me. All that is me being a glowing, white-golden sphere devoid of any cracks or flaws. A flowing sea of starlight drifting in some unseen channel below me, trillions and trillions of little lights lazily floating along the path.
"W-what in the...?" The older being speaks, and if I wasn't so infuriated I may have fainted then and there. A towering mass of thousands of smoky tentacles made of fractals and shapes my mind can't process. Leviathan eyes too many to count staring down at me in bewilderment. I pay the being no mind as my senses lock onto another glowing ball just like me that has a smaller version of the monster I just witnessed hovering next to it.
Several of its inky black appendages stopped mere inches from touching the outer shell of the radiating orb. The orb I know to be my sister.
With everything I have, I dash forward towards her. The stunned reactions of the two monstrosities too late on the uptake as I *crash* into my love. My light. My everything. The memories of our deaths still heavy and fresh on my mind, resolve hardening as my own shell begins to crack and fracture. That I will NEVER be separated from her again.
That whatever these fucks are, they will not change anything about my baby girl. Because she is perfect just the way she is. Flaws and issues and all. So perfect that even in death with those long strands of red, she was radiant. Her body broken yet still the most beautifulthing in existence.
With all of my will, I force that image of Amelia into my sister. Mind buckling and breaking with every new crack and seam as I transmit all of my hopes, and love, and strength to my precious, sweet girl and force myself into her. To finally be one with her even as my own memories begin to disappear into the void.
A blinding white light fills my vision for the second time as the sound of thousands of mirrors shattering echoes across the void. With one final look, I take in my hopelessly wrecked form. Broken beyond repair and thought as I settle into a drowsy sleep.
"I love you, Amelia..." The last thing I think before I begin to rest in a loving, warm embrace of nothingness.